NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



97 



speaking, blue, but displaying all the shades of that various and varying 

 colour. Their jackets were much worn and patched, they had no waist- 

 coats, nor gloves, nor stockings ; their boots old and torn, never blacked 

 nor even brushed. The helmets and cartouch-boxes were such as must 

 have been long out of use in Portugal, as well as every other part of 

 Europe ; the belts made of cotton-cloth, and as much unacquainted with 

 a brush as were the boots. The swords of so small a party were not 

 uniform, though every man had one ; but several of them were without 

 carbines, and supplied the Avant, some with one, some with two old 

 ill-constructed pistols. Their faces and hands were perfectly guiltless of 

 any consumption of so rare an article as soap, or of so common a one as 

 water. The furniture of the horses was just of a piece with the dress 

 and equipments of their riders ; the bridles, in many cases, rendered 

 useful by having their broken parts tied together by a strip of raw hide ; 

 which was then universally used in the colony instead of hempen string ; 

 the bits and stirrups, like the men's spurs, had not been scoured 

 for years. 



The Prince Regent appeared in public with much the same miserable 

 state as his mother ; indeed, his carriage was only a common Lisbonian 

 one, something like our old single horse-chaise, with a head and curtains 

 to it. It was exceedingly shabby, and bore on its pannels some of the 

 ensigns of Royalty, though not the Royal arms. The Princess, his wife, 

 when she did not accompany him in the carriage, sometimes went out on 

 horseback, and, according to the custom of the country, rode astride. 

 The children very seldom took the air, until a good strong family-chariot 

 arrived, a present, it was said, from the King of Great Britain. About 

 the same time each of tiiese three parties had an officer appointed, some^ 

 thing like what, at our Court, is called a Lord in waiting. 



This representation, I am aware, may be regarded as a caricature, 

 but it is not so ; for its correctness an appeal may be made to every 

 British subject who was in Rio, and who observed what was passing 

 around him. The establishment, poor as it appears, required great exer- 

 tions to support it. Grass, which was wanted in considerable quantities 



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